Daily News Digest October 7, 2022

Daily News Digest Archives

Images of the Day:

This Image Can Also  Include The Media Monopoly:  Lights, Camera, Fiction

Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”

Capitalism as a Failed  System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming  Over 5 Decades Ago and Did Nothing!:  Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter  Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading  Racism,  War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The  very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1.Austerity,2. Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3.  The Iron Heel!    For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel!   Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!

Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In  Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!

Always Remember:  That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing,  the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. —  The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!

Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%,  Only the 1% Voted For Austerity!   The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1%, Who Profit From Austerity!!  Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.!   Socialism Means True Democracy, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!

Quotes of the Day:

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. — Bob Marley

Videos of the Day:

Ukraine: A Conversation With Scott Ritter

NATO’s Broken Promise to Russia Provides Context to the Current State of Affairs

NATO’s Broken Promise to Russia Provides Context to the Current State of Affairs

NATO’s Broken Promise to Russia Provides Context to the Current State of Affairs

Our Democracy Was Stolen A Long Time Ago w/ Chris Hedges and Jimmy Dore  

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley

United States:

The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Reublicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a  Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War!  Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich. Rax the Rich!  — They Can Afford To Pay!

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”  ― Louis Brandeis 

Scott Ritter: The Onus Is on Biden & Putin We are, literally, on the eve of destruction. Now is the time for the kind of political maturity leaders rarely demonstrate.     Wars should be avoided at all costs. Nuclear conflict should never be contemplated.     These two truisms are often spoken, but rarely adhered to. Wars occur all too frequently, and so long as nations possess nuclear weapons, their use  is contemplated on a continuous basis.     The ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict has put the world’s two largest nuclear powers on opposing sides, with the U.S. supporting a Ukrainian military that has become a de facto proxy of NATO, and Russia viewing its struggle with Ukraine as including the “collective West.”

 As Iraq War Vote Anniversary Nears, Don’t Forget Who Was Responsible As we approach the 20th anniversary of the fateful congressional vote authorizing the invasion of Iraq, many are questioning what would have happened had Congress refused to go along. There was widespread public opposition to going to war at the time. The Catholic Church and every mainline Protestant denomination came out against the war, as did virtually every major labor union and other left-of-center organization that took a stand. The vast majority of the U.S. Middle East scholars opposed an invasion, being aware of the likely disastrous consequences.      The vast majority of the world’s nations, including most of the United States’s closest allies, were also in opposition to the war.     Unlike the near-unanimous vote (save for Rep. Barbara Lee) the previous year authorizing military force in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq war resolution was far more controversial. A sizable majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the resolution authorizing the invasion, which came to a vote on October 10, 2002. The Republicans then controlled the House, however, and it passed easily.

Freelance Photographer Says He Was Fired by NYT Over Support for Palestinian Resistance “What is taking place is a systematic effort to distort the image of Palestinian journalists as being incapable of trustworthiness and integrity, simply because we cover the human rights violations that the Palestinian people undergo on a daily basis at hands of the Israeli army.”

Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:

Our results suggest residents of Florida and others in the path of Hurricane Ian – especially those without flood insurance or significant aid from social networks – may struggle for years or have to take on large new debts to payfor repairs. Our findings also point to solutions to prevent the growing number of climate-related disasters from worsening inequalities in the U.S. — How Hurricanes and Other Climate Disasters Exacerbate Inequality, Even in the Middle Class

Scientist Says People need to be aware this is coming up fast, and the time to explore mitigation techniques is now,” warns another researcher behind a recently published study.     Their study, published this summer in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, shows that “ocean temperatures increase by 2°C-3°C over the 21st century, and surpass reported regional bleaching thresholds by midcentury.”     Bleaching is when corals expel algae—with which they have a symbiotic relationship—and turn white. Though the corals are not yet dead, they are at higher risk of mortality. Mass bleaching events around the world in recent years have heightened concerns about the fate of reefs—especially given governments’ inadequate plans to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels driving the global climate emergency. —  Some Coral Reefs Can Be Saved ‘If We Take Immediate Action

EPA (Energy Protection Agency): Permian Basin Leaking 14 Times More Methane Than EPA Estimates: Study”Applying this estimate to all gas gathering pipelines nationwide for illustrative purposes would increase the EPA inventory estimate for the entire natural gas system by 27%,” noted co-authors of a new study.

Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:

Hurricane Ian caused major damage to the Florida gulf coast over the past week and it’s caused most communities to start the process of rebuilding.     That’s particularly the case in Naples where on Friday (September 30), the City Council held a community meeting to discuss the need to “figure out a plan” for residents.     The lack of a real plan, however, angered Vicent Keeys, president of the NAACP in Collier County, who questioned whether they could get help from the county. According to Naples News, he said residents in River Park, a historically Black, low-income community, are in desperate need of assistance. — Devastated Black Communities In Florida Trying To Find Shelter, Rebuild From Hurricane Ian 

In One Fort Myers Neighborhood, Black Residents Feel Forsaken In Ian’s Aftermath  Unlike the affluent seaside communities of Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, where the media has descended to chronicle every detail of the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the people who live in the squat homes in Dunbar have faced the crisis mostly on their own.     And for many in the historically African American neighborhood, there’s a sense of anger and frustration. “They’re saying the islands got destroyed,” observes 24-year-old Lexxus Cherry. “Well, we’re destroyed, too. We’re really messed up here.”

Black Residents in 2 Florida Neighborhoods Say They Have Been Left Out If Hurricane Ian Relief Efforts   Latronia Latson said she feels like she has been neglected in the recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian.     Latson, who lives in the Dunbar neighborhood in Fort Myers, Florida, said she can’t get to a relief center to get bottled water and other necessities being distributed because she doesn’t have transportation; the bus system is not running in her neighborhood. Her stove and microwave also mysteriously stopped working after the hurricane, despite power being restored.     Latson said the more affluent, predominately White communities seem to be getting prioritized in the storm recovery.

Black Agenda Report

 Labor:

Economy:

Larry Summers: ‘The Destabilisation Wrought By British Errors Will Not Be Confined To Britain’ (This is part of a series, ‘Economists Exchange’, featuring conversations between top FT commentators and leading economists) It is a critical juncture for the world economy, with the legacy of Covid, war in Ukraine, high inflation (especially soaring food and energy prices), tightening monetary policy and a strong dollar. This was the background when late last month, Kwasi Kwarteng, chancellor of the exchequer in Liz Truss’s new government, delivered his “mini” Budget.     The statement included a costly energy plan as well as substantial permanent tax cuts, including an unexpected reduction in the top rate of income tax from 45p to 40p in the pound. This, he said, was the government’s new “growth plan”. He also offered no estimates of the cost nor implications for debt sustainability.     The market reaction was devastating, causing a sharp fall in the value of the pound and the price of gilts. Early the following week the Bank of England was forced to intervene in the gilts market to limit the damage done to pension funds — some of which were threatened with bankruptcy as complex trades in derivatives came under market pressure. Substantial opposition emerged on the Conservative backbenches to the large, planned tax cut for those earning over £150,000 a year, which forced the government to back down. It was also forced to accept an early forecast of the fiscal implications from the Office for Budget Responsibility.     So what impression has this astonishing episode had on informed outside observers? One who knows the UK and global macroeconomics well is Larry Summers, former US treasury secretary.      I asked him for his view of these events in a discussion last weekend, just before the government’s U-turns on the proposed cut in the top rate of tax.     Larry Summers: I think there’s an element of perfect storm in it. You had misguided fiscal policy coupled with lack of central bank credibility coupled with toxic leverage creating positive feedback loops that led cumulatively to a disastrous outcome.

The UK did not have room for a massive ineffectual fiscal expansion. The uncontained energy subsidies were themselves substantially problematic and did not leave room for large, permanent tax cuts. That called the credibility of the government into substantial question.

New Study: Wall Street Banks Are Doubling Down on Risk by Selling Credit Default Swaps on their Risky Derivatives CounterpartiesLast Thursday, while news outlets focused on videos of the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian on the southwest coast of Florida, two researchers at the Office of Financial Research published a breathtaking and almost surreal analysis of how the mega banks on Wall Street are once again doubling down on unprecedented risk with derivatives and threatening the financial stability of the U.S. The report was ignored by mainstream business media.

World:

British Capitalism’s Demise and the Tasks Confronting Us The UK economy is crashing – the latest disaster in the long-running decline of British capitalism. At the same time, the class divide is widening, and industrial militancy is on the rise. We must prepare for revolutionary explosions.

Indonesia: Police Brutality and Capitalist Profit Responsible for Deadly Football Stampede Indonesian football has been struck by another tragedy. At least 131 people were killed, and hundreds more injured, in a deadly stampede following a match between two rival clubs, Arema Malang and Persebaya Surabaya

Education, Health, Science, and Welfare:

The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘:’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be,  a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People  Vote on Healthcare   

As it is not our task to create utopian systems for the organization of the future society, it would be more than idle to go into the question here.      But one thing is certain: there is already a sufficient quantity of houses in the big cities to remedy immediately all real ‘housing shortage’, provided they are used judiciously.      This can naturally only occur through the expropriation of the present owners and by quartering in their houses homeless workers or workers overcrowded in their present homes.      As soon as the proletariat has won political power, such a measure prompted by concern for the common good will be just as easy to carry out as are other expropriations and billetings by the present-day state.” (German edition, 1887, p. 22l) — The State and Revolution

The. Problem Record-breaking numbers of families cannot afford a decent place to call home:  Nationally, there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for our nation’s 10.8 million plus extremely low-income families.     There is no state or county where a renter working full-time at minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment. 

Seventy percent of all extremely low-income families are severely cost-burdened, paying more than half their income on rent.